(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed towards a system and method for monitoring the behavior and activities of a marine mammal in an ocean or other body of water. More specifically, the invention is directed towards measuring differences in sounds, temperatures and pressures detected within a marine mammal, then analyzing the data to better understand the activities and behavior of the marine mammal.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Many efforts to study marine mammals' response to active sonar have involved tagging the mammals with devices to record the local acoustic field and the depth. However, the tagging operation itself is difficult to do. In a conventional approach, the researchers typically apply a tag externally via a rod to the mammal from a boat. Often only a handful of animals are tagged for a given study.
Capsule endoscopy has been used to record images of the digestive tract of a person in medicine. The capsule is the size and shape of a pill and contains a tiny camera. After a patient swallows the capsule, it takes pictures of the inside of the gastrointestinal tract. The primary use of capsule endoscopy is to examine areas of the small intestine that cannot be seen by other types of endoscopy such as colonoscopy or esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD).